The US is behind Turkey’s plans to launch a false flag attack to create a rationale for an assault against Syria, believes Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African Newswire. Yet a leak of these plans made the Erdogan government panic, he said.

RT:What is the interest of Turkey of unleashing a full-scale war with Syria at the moment?

Abayomi Azikiwe: Obviously, the tensions over the last three years between Turkey and Syria have accelerated. Up until last year, in August, there were direct plans on the part of the Obama administration to launch aerial bombardments against Syria, but due to the intervention of Russia and others throughout the international community, it appears, at least for now, to have been thwarted.

But it is no question that Turkey has been part in parcel of this whole conspiracy against the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad. They have moved high-level missiles in Turkey to the border with Syria. There are also reports of coordination involving the rebel organizations that have been fighting with Syrian government through Turkey as well as other countries throughout the region. So I think the suppression of this YouTube video is an effort to do damage control leading up to the elections that will be taking place very soon inside the country.

RT:Well, if they are in the process of mobilizing, what is in it for them, why is Turkey doing this?

AA: Well, it is a [coordinated] policy on the part of NATO [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization], which Turkey has been a part of since the early 1950s. The US, which founded NATO and in many ways still coordinates its activity, has been pressurizing all of the [NATO] member states to take a hostile position against Syria. If it had not been for the intervention of anti-war forces within international community, the war in Syria would have been much further alone as we speak.

Now we know that about a week and a half ago, Israel launched several air strikes against Syria. They have done this for over a year and a half, but the US wanted more direct military intervention on the part of the Pentagon, utilizing Turkey as well as other states throughout the region as a backup.

I think it is a very dangerous situation because it would be international in its implications. It could involve Lebanon as well as other states in the Middle East.

RT:In case of an attack from Syria, NATO would have to get involved. Is that what Ankara wants?

AA: It appears when listening to the transcripts of these tapes, it appears that was the strategy – to provoke an attack from Syrian territory into Turkey, therefore providing a rationale not only for the Turkish government and the military to launch a counterattack but also to draw in the support of the US and perhaps Israel as well as Britain and other states that are part of the NATO alliance. This was something that is not peculiar to the US foreign policy. We have seen it repeatedly over the decades, these types of false flag operations, total fabrications that in effect will provide a rationale that they can sell to these newspapers and to public opinion in the west where there will be an increase in public support for direct US military and NATO military intervention in Syria.

RT:Will Turkey still pursue this plan given the leak?

AA: I think it will give pause to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and to the Prime Minister’s office. The fact that they’ve in essence panicked and have been panicking for the last few weeks with the ban on Twitter and then the ostensible lifting of the ban on Twitter, now with another reported ban on YouTube, they want to suppress this information in the light of the upcoming national poll.

I think it is a part of the rising opposition against the Erdogan government that has been developing since last year in mass demonstrations that were held in various parts of the country over the restrictions that have been placed over fundamental individual and democratic rights inside the country.